Europe Update

It's been so long since I posted, each time I go to post the internet keepsfailing on me! So here's a recap on how my trip's going so far in Europe.
It is so exciting to be back here in Morzine, France, again!! I arrived afew weeks ago to beautiful sunny weather. So excited to be able to getquality training time on some of the world's best downhill tracks. There areover 40 chairlifts open in this area so there are a lot of different tracksfor me to explore. Since I got here I've been out riding almost every dayand I'm loving it! The tracks are all different with some being really fastand flowy, fast and rough and others are more technical and challenging.There are lots of rocks, roots and jumps so there's lots of differentterrain for me to practice on. So stoked with my brand new set of Schwalbetyres, they are running so mint, hooking the berms and rolling super fast.Thanks a lot Schwalbe!
On July 25th I traveled with a bunch of kiwis to Val d'Isere, France tocompete in round 6 of the World Cup. The track was pretty cool, open, fastand rocky with lots of jumps! It was a challenge for me to ride this onebecause I'm not so confident on fast, open tracks however I overcame thisfear and come qualifying I felt really good about the track. Despite notqualifying (I came in 30th) I felt that I put together a pretty good run andwith a bit more practice I'm sure I would be able to qualify as I was onlyabout 7 seconds off. Pretty stoked with my effort though considering its mysecond world cup race ever! And even more stoked that I hit a huge jump atthe end, which I thought I could never do. Just goes to show that anythingis possible!
So stoked for kiwi rider Brook who won his first World Cup in Elite men!
Last weekend I was at Pila, Italy for an IXS European race. I was realexcited  to ride another new track. Once again I tripped to Pila with a group ofNew Zealanders. We arrived to rain and a huge thunderstorm which luckilycleared off by Friday for track walk. Friday afternoon we walked the trackand after did a few practice runs. The track was pretty long with somerocky, rooty technical sections, sick berms, tight corners and a big jump atthe end. I loved it! I did a couple of runs after track walk and found thetrack to be pretty tiring but so much fun! Practice on Saturday went welland I qualified 10th. I was feeling pretty good come race day. On Sunday itlooked like we were in for a nice sunny day for the race, but all of asudden as I was doing a run down some big clouds came across. It was crazy Icould only see about 40metres in front of me! And then the rain came pouringdown along with thunder and lightening! Luckily it cleared up quite quicklyand the sun came out but the conditions of the track had completely changed.I went into my  race run not really sure what to expect, I was surprised tosee that the track had actually dried out quite a lot from all the ridersbefore me. I put together a pretty good run and ended up in 10th place.Pretty stoked with my result!
This week I'm off to Wiriehorn in Switzerland to race a Swiss cup, can't wait to race! :)

Here's a couple of photo's from the IXS European Cup race at Pila, Italy.